The prospects of 545MW W Kaigah Hydropower Project proposed to be set up at Kandiah River, District Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtu-nkhwa (KPK), is in doubt as National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has rejected its tariff petition, citing non submission of revised project design. According to the regulator, Kandiah Hydropower filed petition for determination of feasibility stage generation tariff on 1 December, 2015.
A hearing was conducted on April 14, 2016 at Nepra Tower, Islamabad, which was attended by the petitioner, representative of Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB) and other stakeholders. During the hearing, the Authority noted that the proposed design of the project was not approved by the relevant agency, ie, PPIB.
In response to Nepra''s clarification written on May 4, 2016, PPIB confirmed that the revised design proposed by the petitioner has not been approved by the Panel of Experts (PoE) of PPIB. Meanwhile, the Authority, in its letter of July 19, 2016 decided to reject the generation licence application of the petitioner due to non-submission of approval of interconnection study and NoC from IRSA.
After viewing the circumstances and giving an opportunity of hearing the petitioner, the Authority conducted another hearing on November 22, 2016. During the hearing, the petitioner was directed to explain the status of approval of revised design of the project as well as NoC from IRSA and approval of interconnection study. Further, the petitioner was directed to settle all pending issues regarding tariff petition within eight weeks. The directions of the Authority were communicated to the petitioner through a letter written on November 29, 2016.
However, the petitioner did not comply with the directions of the Authority given in letter of November 29, 2016, and only an NoC from IRSA was submitted on January 19, 2016.
Nepra argues that the petitioner failed to submit the approval of the proposed design from PPIB and the approval of interconnection study from NTDC required by the Authority within the stipulated time period of eight weeks.
As per rule 16(2) of the Tariff Rules, a tariff petition has to be decided within four months of its admission extendable for a further four months. Further, the petition cannot be kept pending for an indefinite period due to inability of a petitioner to provide necessary information and documents.
The Authority observed that in this case, the petitioner ie Kandiah Hydropower (Pvt) Ltd has failed to provide the requisite information within the specified time period and the petition cannot be kept pending due to deficient information. In view of the facts of the case, the Authority, in accordance with second proviso to rule 16(2) of the Tariff Rules, has dismissed the petition due to non submission of vital information regarding the power project, however, the petitioner has been allowed to file a fresh petition with all necessary information and documents in the manner prescribed in law.
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